R. L. Stott Co.

884 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD R. L. Stott Company and R. L. Stott Heating and Air Conditioning Company' and Steamfitters Local 420, United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Petitioner. Case 4-RC-8272 June 22, 1970 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION By MEMBERS FANNING, MCCULLOCH, AND JENKINS Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Hearing Officer Morris Mogerman. Following the hearing, this case trans- ferred to the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., pursuant to Section 102.67 of the Board's Rules and Regulations and Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as amended. Thereafter, briefs were filed by the Employer and the Petitioner. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connec- tion with this case to a three-member panel. The Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby af- firmed. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds: 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act, and it will effectuate the purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein. 2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concern- ing the representation of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Employer is engaged in the sale and dis- tribution of petroleum products and the sale, instal- lation, and servicing of oil burners, air-conditioners, and related accessories. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of "all oil burner and air condition- ing servicemen and installation employees" at the Employer's Fox Chase, Pennsylvania, plant, exclud- ing specifically all truckdrivers, office clerical em- ployees, dispatchers, salesmen, guards, and super- visors within the meaning of the Act. The Employer contends that the only appropriate unit consists of all employees except the office clericals, guards, and supervisors. There is no history of collective bargaining. ' On the basis of the record, the Petitioner's motion to amend the peti- tion to name "R L Stott Heating and Air Conditioning Company" as the There are approximately 52 employees at the Fox Chase, Pennsylvania, plant, which is the Em- ployer's only facility. There are no areas in the plant which are set aside exclusively for certain em- ployees. Installation area employees sought by the Peti- tioner include installation technicians, who are most highly skilled and are capable of installing a complete air-conditioning or heating system without help; installation technicians second class, who perform the same job as the installation techni- cians but lack the degree of skill possessed by the latter; installation helper, who is an installation em- ployee learning by assisting on the job; and installa- tion driver-helper, who delivers materials to the jobsite where installation personnel are installing equipment and may help the service or installation employees on the job. In addition, there are sheet metal mechanics who prefabricate in the shop or install on the job all of the sheet metal in the heat- ing, air-conditioning, or ventilation system being in- stalled. All of the aforementioned employees are supervised by Installation Manager Warren. The Petitioner would exclude the sheet metal mechanics because "they are engaged in the Em- ployer's shop in the traditional duties of a sheet metal worker ... [and] ... do not perform the customary and traditional functions associated with the pipefitting craft ...... The record established that the sheet metal mechanics fabricate and install the ducts that carry air from the heating or air-con- ditioning units. One of them generally stays in the shop where he fabricates the ducts and the others generally work at the site; at times, however, the former also works at the jobsite. It is apparent that the sheet metal workers are skilled employees who perform a job that is closely integrated with that of the other installation employees; in addition, the Petitioner's primary unit request is not limited to pipefitter craftsmen. In these circumstances, includ- ing their common supervision by the installation manager, we find that the sheet metal mechanics are appropriately part of a unit which includes in- stallation employees. Service area employees sought by the Petitioner include air-conditioning and burner service techni- cians, who service air-conditioning units and acces- sories, such as humidifiers and air cleaners; burner service technicians, who perform the same func- tions as the aforementioned employees except that they do not service air-conditioning units; burner service technicians second class, who perform burner service jobs and are not as highly skilled as, the aforementioned employees; and burner service sole Employer herein is denied, and the caption is amended to reflect that the Employer consists of both named corporate entities 183 NLRB No. 87 R. L. STOTT COMPANY apprentice, who is learning to be a serviceman on the job. In addition, there are service technicians who do cleanout and tuneup work on burners. All of these service area employees are supervised by Service Manager Kolla. The Petitioner asserts that service technicians Al- bers and Meyer should be excluded from the unit because they are independent contractors. The record established that, unlike the other employees, they are paid on a "per call" rather than an hourly basis; they do not receive the fringe benefits pro- vided for other employees; and social security and unemployment compensation deductions are not made from their pay. On the other hand, they work regularly for the Employer on a daily basis; they are under the direct supervision of the Employer's su- pervisors; and it is abundantly clear from the record that the Employer determines not only the desired end result of their work, but also the means by which that result is to be accomplished. On the record, therefore, we find that these service techni- cians are employees within the meaning of the Act, and we shall include them in the unit with the other service employees. Local No. 2265, Carpenters, 170 NLRB 633. As there is no contention that the installation and service employees ought not to be in the same unit, the remaining issues concern whether employees in other classification are appropriately to be included in the unit with the installation and service em- ployees. These are the receiving and inventory clerk, who orders and dispenses all materials to the service and installation area employees, drivers, who transport fuel oil and gasoline from the ter- minal to the plant and from the plant to the customer's home, vehicle mechanics, who are responsible for the repair and maintenance of the vehicles owned by the Employer; salesmen, who sell fuel oil, motor oil, and gasoline, as well as air- conditioning and heating equipment; plant main- tenance man, who performs janitorial functions at the plant; and dispatchers, who dispatch service personnel and drivers from the plant by radio. All of these employees are under different immediate supervision from the installation and service em- ployees, except that the receiving and inventory clerk is supervised by the service manager, and the dispatcher is supervised by the service manager to the extent that his dispatching duties relate to the service employees. The record establishes that all employees are covered by the same group insurance, sick benefit, pension, or profit-sharing plans and all (except the salesmen and the two service technicians) are 2 Although, as set forth above, the dispatchers are supervised in part by the service manager, the record fails to establish that they otherwise share a 885 hourly paid and receive time and one-half for over- time . The record also shows, however, that incen- tive pay is calculated differently for the different employee classifications, and only truckdrivers receive premium pay for weekend work. In addi- tion , there is some temporary interchange between jobs, in that servicemen may serve as truckdrivers during winter periods when the demand for fuel is high, and drivers may aid service or installation men during the summer, when the demand for fuel is low. The extent of such interchange is not, how- ever, established by the record. The record further shows that the work per- formed by the service and installation employees requires a degree of skill different from and greater than that required of other employees. As was established at the hearing, while there is no fixed apprenticeship period, it generally takes about 3 years of on-the-job training to progress from the lowest to the highest rated service or installation job. Although not clearly established in the record, it would appear that the other classifications require less training. In all the circumstances, we find that a unit limited to service and installation employees is ap- propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. These employees share a level of skill and working conditions which renders them distinct from the other employees; they are separately supervised; and such interchange as exists is not shown to be so substantial as to destroy their separate indentity as an appropriate unit. We shall, however, include the receiving and inventory clerk in the unit, as it was established at the hearing that he orders and dispenses parts to the service and installation men; he is a specialist in oil burners; he had conducted classes to update the men's knowledge; he some- times goes out on the job; and he is supervised by Service Manager Kolla, who also supervises the ser- vicemen. On these facts we find that he has a suffi- ciently close community of interest with the other servicemen to require that he be included in the unit with them.' Accordingly, we find that the following em- ployees constitute a unit appropriate for the pur- poses of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act: All service and installation employees, includ- ing installation technicians, installation techni- cians second class, installation helpers, installa- tion driver-helpers, sheet metal mechanics, air- conditioning and burner service technicians, burner service technicians, burner service technicians second class, burner service ap- substantial community of interest with the unit employees , we shall there- fore exclude them from the unit 886 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD prentices, service technicians and the receiving and inventory clerk, at the Employer's Fox Chase, Pennsylvania, plant, excluding all drivers, vehicle mechanics, salesmen, plant maintenance men, dispatchers, office clerical employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. [Direction of Election3 omitted from publica- tion. ] J In order to assure that all eligible voters may have the opportunity to be the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 4 within 7 days of the informed of the issues in the exercise of their statutory right to vote, all date of this Decision and Direction of Election The Regional Director shall parties to the election should have access to a list of voters and their ad- make the list available to all parties to the election No extension of time to dresses which may be used to communicate with them Excelsior Un- file this list shall be granted by the Regional Director except in extraordina- dera ear Inc, 156 NLRB 1236, N L R B v Wi nian-Cordon Co, 394 U S ry circumstances Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds 759 Accordingly, it is hereby directed that an election eligibility list, con- for setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed taining the names and addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by